So, so wrong.

But so funny:



Hat tip: Scott (site comprehensively not safe for work unless you work for gay pornographers or your office has very relaxed Acceptable Use policies... in which case, click away!)

Everything is just a few hundred clicks away

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

The fact-checker as endangered species

It was among the juicier post-election recriminations: Fox News Channel quoted an unnamed McCain campaign figure as saying that Sarah Palin did not know that Africa was a continent.

Who would say such a thing? On Monday the answer popped up on a blog and popped out of the mouth of David Shuster, an MSNBC anchor. “Turns out it was Martin Eisenstadt, a McCain policy adviser, who has come forward today to identify himself as the source of the leaks,” Mr. Shuster said.

Trouble is, Martin Eisenstadt doesn’t exist. His blog does, but it’s a put-on. The think tank where he is a senior fellow — the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy — is just a Web site. The TV clips of him on YouTube are fakes.

[...]

[The hoaxsters] say the blame lies not with them but with shoddiness in the traditional news media and especially the blogosphere.

“With the 24-hour news cycle they rush into anything they can find,” said Mr. Mirvish, 40.

A Senior Fellow at the Institute of Nonexistence (New York Times, 13 Nov 2008)

Hat tip: Carrie (and special notice to enrevanche regular wtf, who managed to post this in the comments before I had a chance to blog it this morning!)

Related: The Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy

...designed for collaborative, practical, self-empowered survival

Mission Statement: To increase the Darwinian fitness of the world's poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-energy, internet-enabled velociraptor with content designed for collaborative, practical, self-empowered survival.

...from the One Velociraptor Per Child (OVPC) Initiative's web site

Oh, man, big chunks of this are just irresistible to quote. I'll stop after this one, or we'll be here all day:

The XD is trained using free and open-source techniques. Our commitment to freedom gives children the opportunity to interact [with] their velociraptors on their own terms. While we do not expect every child to become a trainer, we do not want any ceiling imposed on those children who choose to retrain their dinosaurs. We are using openly documented psychological techniques for much the same reason: transparency is empowering. The children - and their elders - will have the freedom to reshape, reinvent, and reapply their behavioral conditioning skills.

A tip of the enrevanche chapeau to Chap.

Related:

• One Laptop Per Child
• Michael Crichton, dead at 66 (Los Angeles Times, 5 Nov 2008)

Channeling Wodehouse

In this week's New Yorker, Christopher Buckley reimagines James Baker and Dubya as Jeeves and Bertie Wooster.

“Might I suggest, sir, a regional conference?”

“Dash it, Jeeves, we’re at war. You can’t go conferencing with bullets flying all over the place.”

“Indeed, sir. And yet if we were to invite, say, Iran and Syria and some of the other affected countries to sit down for what is, I believe, referred to as ‘networking,’ it might take some of the pressure off yourself?”

“You mean the sort of how-d’ye-do where everyone sits at one of those huge U-shaped tables and makes endless orations all day?”

“That would be the general notion, yes, sir.”

“Now, steady on, Jeeves. You know I hate those things. You sit there with an earphone, listening to interpreters jibber-jabber about how it’s all your fault. I’d rather take my chances playing Blinky with Cobra Woman and Cactus Butt.”

“You wouldn’t actually have to attend personally, sir. Indeed, I could represent you, if that would be agreeable.”

“I say, would you, Jeeves?”

Smashing.